[6] Kanro, a Buddhist word, properly written with two Chinese characters signifying "sweet dew." The real meaning is amrita, the drink of the gods.
VIII
You, till a hundred years; I, until nine and ninety;
Together we still shall be in the time when the hair turns white.
IX
Seeing the face, at once the folly I wanted to utter
All melts out of my thought, and somehow the tears come first![7]
Iitai guchi sayé
Kao miriya kiyété
Tokakii namida ga
Saki ni deru.
The use of tokaku ("somehow," for "some reason or other") gives a peculiar pathos to the utterance.
X
Crying for joy made wet my sleeve that dries too quickly;
'T is not the same with the heart,—that cannot dry so soon!
XI
To Heaven with all my soul I prayed to prevent your going;
Already, to keep you with me, answers the blessed rain.
So passes the period of illusion. The rest is doubt and pain; only the love remains to challenge even death:—
I
Parted from you, my beloved, I go alone to the pine-field;
There is dew of night on the leaves; there is also dew of tears.
II
Even to see the birds flying freely above me
Only deepens my sorrow,—makes me thoughtful the more.
III
Coming? or coming not? Far down the river gazing,
—Only yomogi shadows[8] astir in the bed of the stream.
[8] The plant yomogi (Artemisia vulgaris) grows wild in many of the half-dry beds of the Japanese rivers.